Touwsrivier

The 44.19 MWp Touwsrivier CPV project succeeded in the first call for projects initiated through the REIPPP of the South African Department of Energy to ramp up renewable energy resources in the country. The Touwsrivier CPV power plant is located in the sunny Breede Valley on the N1 about 150 km north-east of Cape Town, South Africa. It consists of 1.500 Soitec CX-S530-II CPV systems organized in 60 sections with a central inverter for each section. For the debt financing of the project, Soitec successfully finalized a ZAR 1,000,000,000 (at the time about $100 millions) bond transaction. It proved that CPV projects can be financed like any traditional infrastructure project. In December 2014, Soitec completed all requested testing procedures and got confirmation from the South African utility Eskom Holdings SOC Limited for the final commissioning of the CPV power plant. The electricity produced by the CPV power plant is fed into Eskom's Grid under a 20 year power purchase agreement and is expected to provide about 23,000 homes with clean, renewable energy.